HR Perspective: Archana Tomar Mann, VP, Compliance, CSR, Training & Development, Orient Craft, Gurgaon
This issue depends on the systems, and varies from one company to another and even from factory to factory. There are some other factors that too play an important role with this regard. Some of our factories have an entire workforce on payroll, so there is no chance for such a situation. However, looking at the seasonal nature of the business, in few factories, we do have some workers on contract too. Since we have prestigious clients and have a better understanding and long-term relation with them, it gives us a fair idea about the amount of work we may have during the incoming season. We plan accordingly and allocate work. We also hardly see any shortage of orders, so there is no question of worker lay-off. Thus, the mindset of workers and the company’s approach towards workers are major factors to be taken into consideration while hiring and firing labour. As nearly 80 per cent workforce is migratory, they do know when and for how many days their factory will have workload or normal orders, when they will work without overtime (OT), and they plan their leaves accordingly and manage their jobs as well as their work in their villages. We have never asked any worker to leave and similarly, workers also prefer to work with us. We have many workers who have been with us since decades. The best possible solution for the industry is to keep maximum workers on payroll and focus on their welfare, CSR activities. We, at Orient Craft, are associated with almost each and every such program of buyers be it HERhealth, PACE, Gender Equality and many more. We do offer scholarships to our workers’ children to support their education, have proper focus on the health and safety of workers and such initiatives at the end of the day really matter as they help in making the workers committed towards their work as well as the factory.
Technical Professional’s Experience
Vikas Kumar, AGM- Operations, Shahi Exports, Faridabad
Our company is known for its best practices, be it HR, production, marketing or any other department. Workers feel proud to work with Shahi Exports and we do work hard for the same. Visibility of orders at the company level as well as factory level, accordingly exact balance between workflow, workers’ resignation for personal reasons and controlling the scale of hiring are some of our most important features and strategies in this regard. I must add here that most of the time, we have good orders, but in rare and exceptional cases related to supply issues or some such unavoidable reasons, the company does give salary to workers sitting idle.
Observation and suggestions for medium level exporters
Babul Singh, IE Manager, Team Krian, Noida
This kind of situation has the worst effect on a factory that has very less business for few months and in this case, they fire most of their operators. Such factories have trouble to get workers again once they start getting orders during peak season or normal months. The factory is then forced to pay OT, high wages, short-term incentives and other benefits to get workers to work on the orders. We need to see this picture from a larger perspective. In last few years, the loyalty in workers has reduced especially among the workers of Delhi-NCR. Delay of even one-day salary is not tolerable by most of the workers, and similar is the approach of many factories. In case, factories don’t have work, they prefer to make the full and final payment to workers even for any small issue rather than offering him leave during that lean period.
Source: https://in.apparelresources.com